Hominy-mill



Patented Jan. 5,- 1858.

E. FAHRNEY.

Hominy Mill.

N. PETERS. Pxmmumn m lwn wmin wn. D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EZRA FAHRNEY, OF DEEP RIVER, IOW'A, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN DONALDSON, OF MOUNTMORRIS, ILLINOIS.

HOMINY-MILL.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 19.060, dated January 5, 1858-.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EZRA FAHRNEY, of Deep River, in the county ofPoweshiek and State of Iowa, have invented a new and use ful Improvementin Mills for Preparing or Cracking Hominy; and I do hereby declare thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same,reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which- Figure 1, is a transverse vertical section ofmy improvement, (00) Fig. 2, showing the plane of section. Fig. 2, is alongitudinal vertical section of ditto (y) (y) Fig. 1, showing the planeof section. Fig. 3 is an end view of ditto.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

My invention relates to an improvement in the intermittent hominyfeeding and discharging device patented by me in 1854: and is designedto dispense with the necessity of using slides for feeding anddischarging, and thereby simplify the actuating mechanism and alsoinsure a more certain operation of the parts which control theintroduction of the uncracked corn, and the discharge of the same afterit has been cracked.

The nature of the improvement proposed, consists in the employment ofself closing hinged flap valves, one at the top and the other at thebottom of the cylinder, in combination with a ratchet wheel arrangedloosely on the hub of the stationary cylinder, and having two pins onits face and being slowly actuated by a pawl which is connected with acrank shaft by means of a vertical rod and jointed elbow lever. In thisarrangement slides, which are liable to stick or bind in their movement,are superseded by hinged flap valves, which are more easy and certain intheir movement, and in place of the worm wheel, screw shaft, and camwheel and other devices which rendered the machine described in mypatent complicated, the simple ratchet wheel with pins and pawl, andtheir simple actuating devices, are employed, and that too, in such amanner that but very little power is required to operate them, as may beevident from the description hereinafter given.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct myinvention I will proceed to describe it.

A represents a cylinder which has a shaft B placed longitudinally in it.The shaft B is provided with heaters and the internal surface of thecylinder is provided with teeth or corrugations. The cylinder and shaftare of usual construction and therefore do not require a minutedescription.

C represents a ratchet wheel which is placed loosely on a hub (a)attached to one of the two uprights D, D, between which the cylinder Ais secured.

E represents a shaft which is placed be tween the two uprights D, D, attheir lower ends. This shaft E has a pulley F at one end and a crank pin(1)) at the opposite end. The shaft E receives its motion by a belt (0)from the shaft B.

To the crank pin (6) a connecting rodGr is attached, and the upper endof this rod is connected to a bent lever (d) which works on a fulcrumpin (6) attached to one of the uprights D. The bent lever (d) has a pawl(f) attached to it, said pawl catching into the ratchet C.

On the inner side of the ratchet C, and near its periphery, two pins g)(h) are attached. These pins are placed at opposite sides of the centerof the ratchet as shown in Fig. 3.

On the cylinder A a hopper H is placed. This hopper has a flap or door(i) fitted in its bottom, the flap or door being attached to a rod (j)one end of which passes through the upright D and has an arm. attachedto it, a spring (Z) bears against this arm, the spring (Z) keeps theflap or door ('5) closed.

To the under side of the cylinder A a door or flap (m) is attached. Thisdoor or flap covers an opening which extends the whole length of thecylinder A. The flap or door is attached to a rod (0) the ends of whichare fitted in the uprights D, D. To one end of the rod (0) an arm (70)is attached, said arm having a weight E at its outer end. The weight Eis sufiiciently heavy to keep the flap or door (m) closed over theopening (a) when said arm is not acted upon by any extraneous force.

T represents a screen which is placed between the lower parts of the twouprights D, D, said screen being suspended by rods (g) (g) from across-rod (7*) between the upper parts of the uprights.

The operation is as follows. The corn is placed in the hopper H, andmotion is given the shaft B in any proper manner. As the shaft B rotatesmotion is communicated to the shaft E by the belt (0) and the ratchet Cis rotated by the pawl (f) which is actuated by the lever (03) andconnecting rod G from the shaft E. As the ratchet C rotates, the pin (h)at every revolution ofthe ratchet actuat-es the arm of the rod and theflap or door is elevated and a sufficient quantity of corn is let intothe cylinder A, and at every revolution of the ratchet the pin 9actuates the arm (p) and the flap or door (m) is opened and the crackedcorn or hominy allowed to escape from the cylinder. I

It will be understood that as the two pins (h) are placed on the ratchetat opposide sides of its center, sufiicient time elapses between theopening of the flap and the opening of the flap to allow the corn to beproperly cracked within the cylinder A, and the pins (g) (h) are soplaced that when the lower door or flap (m) is closed the flap (2') willbe immediately opened to let a fresh supply of corn within the cylinderA.

The advantage of the above improvement is that a very simple andautomatic or self-acting feeding and discharging device is obtained. Itwill be seen that if a large hopper H is provided the mill will notrequire an attendant, or one will only be required at long intervals tofill the hopper, and the mill by my improvement will be fed in a moreeven and steady manner than can possibly be done by hand.

Having thus described my invention I wish it to be distinctly understoodthat I make no claim in this application to an intermittent feeding anddischarging device for hominy machines having two slides, one arrangedat top and the other at bottom of the cylinder, said slides beingoperated alternately by a cam wheel driven by a worm wheel and screwshaft, as such an arrangement was patented by me in 1854, but

What I do claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent,as an improvement on the mill patented to me on the 15th day of May1855, is

The employment of two self closing hinged flap Valves 6, m, one at thetop and the other at the bottom of the cylinder A,

in combination with a ratchet 0, arranged loosely on the hub of thecylinder, and having two pins 9, h, on its face and being actuatedslowly by a pawl f, which is connected with a crank shaft E, by means ofa vertical rod G, and jointed elbow lever d, 0, sub- 2 stantially as andfor the purposes set forth.

EZRA FAHRNEY.

Witnesses: I

MYRON WHITNEY, JOHN MORGAN.

